"That's all he talked about was Colt this, Colt that," Enoch A'ana recalled. "It was because of the love of the game that he had and the love that he had for Colt Brennan. ... He never saw a team this powerful, this strong, this bonded. He saw something very special in Colt."

But there was another reason A'ana wanted to see the Warriors play in New Orleans.

"My dad spoke of the trip as being a gift from God," said A'ana's daughter Shanita Akana, of Ewa Beach. "He needed to share that news (of his illness) with my sister, who was in Florida."

If it were not for his wish to see the Sugar Bowl, his family would have never let him take the risk of traveling with the large aneurysm to see his daughter, Akana said.

On Dec. 28, A'ana left Honolulu to meet his daughter Carmel Doyle, whom he informed about his illness, in Pensacola, Fla. They drove to New Orleans.

"He was excited from the moment he stepped off the airplane," Doyle said. "He was fanatic about it and just very, very proud."

A'ana was a spiritual man. He made many sacrifices during his 35 years as a Honolulu police dispatcher to put his four daughters through private school. He was an anti-abortion activist and cared for his wife of 43 years, Sharron A'ana, who has diabetes.

He gave closure to all of his five children -- four children in Hawaii during Christmas -- and Doyle in Pensacola. A'ana was able to give Doyle the time she needed to grieve with him.

"Everything that I ever wanted to tell my dad, I told him," she said.

On Jan. 3, A'ana was on a flight from Georgia to Honolulu when his aneurysm inflamed. He was taken off the flight and sent to an Atlanta hospital. He died two days later of complications from the aneurysm.

His children hope their mother, who is in the Wilcox Hospital emergency room in Kauai because of complications from her diabetes, will be well enough to attend the funeral.